We had a surge from the substation today, threw several breakers, some GFCIs, and blew out the power to the neighborhood for 7 hours. All the neighbors had similar issues. When they waited for the pole to burn down, ran new wires, and got them strung and turned the power back on, one of my switches acted strange. It is having the flickering issue while off, like a low load, but the LED lamp (micro soldered, not a bulb) never caused an issue before. There’s no other load on this circuit. Why would this suddenly be an issue. Is the switch damaged and allowing more power to passthrough than previously did? As much as I love the few inovelli that make sense for me modest house, I don’t want to have issues every time we get a blown transformer, etc (happens more often than it should–going up in flames, well, that’s a new one).
Would highly, highly recommend a load center surge suppression be installed if you don’t have one already. I use Eaton CHSPT2ULTRA (https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us/skuPage.CHSPT2ULTRA.html), but depending on brand of load center, there’s other options.
I would try performing the air gap reset or factory reset the switch (do not delete from your hub). Rejoin the switch and see if that helps fix the issue.
Smart switches are sensitive to power surges, some brands more than others. It’s the surge that occurs when power is restored that does it. I’ve never lost an Inovelli, but have lost other branded switches. I’ve also lost garage door opener boards and GoControl controllers.
@harjms is spot on. I use load center protection as well (plus indiviudal surge protectors on my garage door openers/controllers). While your Authority Having Jurisdiction may not have adopted it yet, the 2020 NEC now requires dwelling units to have surge protection. (230.67)
Sorry for not getting back. Some family health emergencies took precedent. Interestingly, I’d done air gap resets, reset procedure, all that prior to posting. I threw a aeotec bypass on it and all is well. Odd that the load did not require a bypass previously but did now, though.
And yes, load center protection is planned, when I’m also installing the connections for my generator. Life has been fairly chaotic and I haven’t got nothing such as this. Appreciate the feedback.
Completely understand. Glad you were able to get it restored.